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| Child prisoners are being tortured and threatened with rape (Al Jazeera) |
By Atef Douglas - Nablus
"We will attach the electricity wires to your testicles and prevent you from marriage and having kids forever, if you don’t tell us exactly what you know."
This is a fraction of what the Israeli interrogator said to the child “A.M.M” of the city of Hebron when he was arrested two weeks ago, who threatened to use "all methods" to force him to confess.
The 14-year-old boy “A.M.M” said that the Israeli occupation forces arrested him from his home at around two o'clock in the morning in a very violent way. He was frightened by the horror of the situation of soldiers storming the house who dragged him handcuffed, shackled and alone in a military vehicle, refusing to tell his parents the reason for his arrest or where they are taking him.
He added that during the interrogation - which lasted eight days - the investigators used tricks and torture to obtain false confessions, and when they did not succeed, they stung him by needles and threatened to attach electrical wires to his testis.
He pointed that they "obtained forced confessions" under psychological and physical torture, after they connected electrical power to the cables and started implementing their threats.
This child's testimony is not the first of its kind, it is one of hundreds of other similar testimonies compiled by Defense for Children International, in a report issued earlier this month.
Sexual Assaults
The legal adviser at Defense for Children International - Palestine section “Khaled Quzmar” said that the main motive behind the issuance of the report is the upsurge in arrests of children (seven hundred children per year) and the diversity of attacks on them, especially sexual assaults, which reached nearly 30% of all forms of abuse.
He stressed that the circumstances of arrest and detention cause harm to their physical and mental health, pointing out that child abuse is a crime, how can you be a child and be imprisoned?
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| Quzmar: Israel does not respond to any international or local rulings to stop torture of child prisoners (Al Jazeera) |
The verbal threat of sexual assault on child prisoners is routine, but it develops sometimes to the point of direct offence by "rape."
Attempts to "insert a stick in the child’s anus to terrorize him" is what has happened a few days ago, as reported by one of the children.
He adds, "They exercised a flagrant violation of the right of a child last week."
Quzmar called on local and international human rights organizations - in particular members of the Fourth Geneva Convention - to lift their voice to compel Israel to cease its violations, especially against children. Quzmar added that "Israel is the only country in the world that is above the law."
Israel has killed more than four hundred children last year (some burned to death by white phosphorus shells dropped in densely populated Gaza areas) and at least eight children since the beginning of this year.
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| Seven hundred children are arrested by Israel each year (Al Jazeera) |
Deputy Minister for prisoner affairs, Ziad Abu Ein, said that Israel is practicing the worst forms of terrorism against child prisoners "where there's 335 children in prisons of the occupation."
He added that Israel is the only country in the world that authorizes legislations and laws for detaining children under the age of twelve and holding them accountable, and is not subject to any international law.
According to the report, abuse of Palestinian children detained by the Israeli occupation forces - who are usually detained in the dead of night as a form of intimidation or deterrence - varied between handcuffing, which reached 97%, blindfolding 92%, beating and kicking 69%, verbal abuse, signing confessions in Hebrew, solitary confinement, and many other forms of abuse and torture.
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